So you see direction is important but without proper distance it is of little consequence. How hard is it to aim from twenty or forty feet away? If you miss by two feet in either direction and your distance was good, then you would only have a two-footer left; hence, you would never three-putt. I rarely see anyone three-putt due to poor aim.

The most common complaint I get from students is that they say they have trouble reading the greens. My response is always, "How is your distance?" Distance is the key to breaking putts and all putts break. Lee Trevino once said, "All putts are straight if you hit them hard enough." This is true, but if you miss, they tend to run by too far past the hole. Just the opposite, balls that have a slower speed are in contact with the green longer and will be more influenced, so they tend to break more and usually come up short. Unless you are 90 degrees above or below the hole, all putts break. They do this due to the pitch in the greens. Architects build greens with slope so that they can drain water. "Reading the greens" is simply knowing where the most influence is coming from. The most influential factors are slope and grain.

Greens are three-dimensional so there could be several slopes influencing your putt. Always look for the overall contour of the green and surroundings, i.e. where is the natural roll of the land and where did the architect design the water to run off? These two do no always go together and when this occurs, you must take into account the grain.

Grain tends to run in the direction of the natural contour of the land; away from hills and toward places where creeks and ponds naturally occur. Bermuda grasses are thicker leafed and tend to have more grain than other grasses. The grass tends to grow toward the sun, which is strongest and last influence is to the West. Also, the predominant wind can influence the grain. Grain is not as prevalent today as it was forty years ago due to better mowing practices and different grasses. The greatest improvement in the game today is better greens.

Now we determine which direction the influence is coming from. One way to do this is to bend down and imagine pouring a pitcher of water out at the hole. Where would the water drain? That is where the most influence will be. Now that we know where the influence is, we have to match up the break with the amount of speed we intend to roll the ball past the hole.

Where people tend to get off is that they do not putt with a consistent pace. Tiger Woods tends to be aggressive with his stroke, and when he misses, he runs the ball by three to four feet. Mark O'Meara uses a slower paced stroke and runs the ball by only a foot or so when he misses. Tiger and Mark are both considered two of the best putters on Tour, even though they put with different paces. When these two were partners in a Ryder Cup match, they did not read each other's break. Because they play with different paces, they could not determine the amount the other's putt would break. The key here is that good putters putt with a consistent pass and roll the ball a consistent distance past the hole.

So how do you develop a feel for distance? First, find a pace that you are comfortable with, then adopt this pace on both sides of the ball so there is no real change in tempo. Once your pace is constant, simply control the distance by the length of your swing. The length of your swing should match up on both sides much like a pendulum.

For short putts, you do not need much swing, so a short stroke on both sides should be fine. For longer putts, we need more speed, so a longer stroke on both sides would give us more momentum at impact. Notice that we do not want to hit the ball harder, we can do that without changing the length of our stroke. So now that we have a consistent pace or tempo to our stroke, we simply match up the length of our stroke with the distance we are trying to hit the ball. This would be similar to playing pinball. The further we pull back on the spring (a constant), the more momentum that we have to propel the ball with and the further it will go.

A way to practice this is to take five tees and place them five feet apart. Find an uphill place on the green so that there will be little break. While keeping a constant pace, try to hit each ball to the first tee without running it by or leaving it short. Then do this to the second and third tee and so on. Notice how the length of your stroke causes the ball to go different distances. After you realize how you can control your distance, try putting to the tees in random order. This way you can create feel. Another way to practice distance would be to lag putts to the fringe from different distances, much like pitching pennies.

Putting with a better feel for distance will help to eliminate any three-putts. Remember to play enough break, so that when your ball starts to break, it is breaking toward the hole and not running away from it.

Mark Moore, Head Instructor
Hank Haney Golf Center @ Cityplace
Dallas, Texas 75204
(214) 520-7275